


Dance to Freedom

by poisonous_panda



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Altissia, Arranged Marriage, Ballet, Dragoon, Freedom, Gen, Tenebrae - Freeform, Trapped, Women Oppression
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-13
Updated: 2017-08-13
Packaged: 2018-12-15 00:43:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11794878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poisonous_panda/pseuds/poisonous_panda
Summary: An Aranea Origins story. Based on eternallydaydreaming's HC that Aranea is a skilled ballet dancer. Her skills would serve her well after she left her rich, oppressing family to join the mercenary life with Biggs and Wedge





	Dance to Freedom

**Author's Note:**

  * For [eternallydaydreaming](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eternallydaydreaming/gifts).



Not many people know it, and she was loathe to admit it, but Aranea Highwind came from a very rich family. One that would probably love to see her again and take her back regardless of the cruel things she had done whilst living as a mercenary.

Killing, spying, stealing, bodyguarding.... all things she knew they would not deem ‘ladylike’. But that was why she had run away as a teenager, with Biggs and Wedge by her side.

Aranea had a satisfying upbringing, and was very skilled in ballet. But that had also been her downfall. Raised in the wealthy district of Altissia, she was expected to marry a rich man and keep the ‘blue bloods’ together. That, she didn’t mind. After all she was raised on the idea. But when she actually met the man, there was nothing there.

He was smooth-talking, much taller than her with overbearing mannerisms. He’d touch her suddenly without her permission - both sexually and otherwise - and he’d always believe he knew best and would talk down to her like she was a naive child. When she had spoken to her mother about this, her mother had laughed and said it was for the ‘greater good’.

That didn’t sit well with Aranea.

“Greater good?!” she’d roared at her Tenebraen friends Biggs and Wedge down the pub one night. The boys were cousins and their families had moved to Altissia with the aims of creating a better life for the children away from Niflheim’s doorstep.

The boys were just as unsatisfied as Aranea. With their common upbringing, they both hated how posh Altissia was and how they had to conduct themselves differently and try to change their speech patterns. That’s where her nickname ‘Lady A’ had come from - they were to address the higher class and ‘Lady’ and ‘Sir’.

“Lady A, what about the rise o’ the mercenary movement?” Biggs had asked. All three of them were seventeen years old, and the boys were skilled in firearms from their time shooting clay pigeons together as children with their fathers.

“Tempting, Six know I’m pissed off enough,” she grumbled, “But I can’t shoot like you boys.”

“We’ll teach ya.” Wedge replied, lighting another cigarette.

“No thanks.” she declined.

“You’ve grown some balls since tha’ engagement Arry!” Biggs laughed.

“Arry...?” Aranea was taken aback at this new nickname.

“Oh uh... Sorry Lady A.” Biggs hastily corrects himself.

But Aranea liked the new nickname. She was really drawn into casting the higher class world away, so ‘Arry’ became her secret nickname. She’d drink down the pubs in the lower districts of Altissia where no names were asked and no ID was needed. It was a seedy bar that gave the trio an insight into the rough world around them - barfights, shading dealings, grasses wearing wires. It was intriguing. Aranea had lost her virginity to her Betrothed, but that didn’t stop her going home with strange men in the bars to experience no-strings sexual thrills where she was never required to be an obedient toy, and as the years went on she’d got into her own fair share of barfights.

The big change came when she was taken to a ballet show with her mother. The act was nothing she hadn’t seen before, but this time she watched it with fresh eyes. The ballerinas with large poles and ribbons launching themselves all round the stage. Since Biggs had mentioned the mercenary movement, Aranea had been wracking her brains as to the weapon she could wield. And this show inspired her. Growing up, she had heard of the legendary Dragoons who flew through the sky like birds, their spears skewering through their enemies like sharp talons. But they had vanished from the pages of history.

What better way to get her independence back than make a name for herself? Make people fear her? They would never tell her how to live her life again if they were scared she could tear them apart.

So she threw herself back into her ballet lessons, much to her mother’s joy. And she used that show as her inspiration to request private pole dancing lessons. Her already toned body became more muscular as she also attended the gym with Biggs and Wedge, and her attitude slowly changed the longer she was around them and attended the seedy bars. She became mouthy, her confidence grew as her body got stronger. In the end, her fiance threatened to leave her, and while her parents were arguing about it one night, at the age of nineteen Aranea slipped out of the house with precious few belongings (including her beloved homemade spear that had been hidden from her family) and drove off into the night with her best friends in their campervan.

It would be a squeeze, and they had to live off of tinned food for a long time, but it was worth it for the freedom.

She would become a feared mercenary who would pick and choose her jobs. Nobody would ever boss her around again without her say so. And she’d always have her two best friends by her side if she ever needed support.

Her life was hers to live.


End file.
